Thank you! I meant to say negate the reg first, not the white;)

There is a new product Bona red out. anyone tried this?

Bona Red would have been nice to have last December when I refinished my floors!

Wish I had it then too!

The time and money I’ve spent trying to make red oak look legit is incalculable. To those asking about Bona Red Out, attached is one before and one after photo on new red oak, though the effect is similar on old red oak, which I also have in my home. Red Out removes a lot of the pink and red tones, or rather, it converts them to more yellow. If the undertone of sanded red oak is pink, the undertone of sanded red oak with Red Out is yellow, which I believe is better, even if imperfect. I will be applying two coats of Bona NordicSeal next, followed by Bona TrafficHD. I’ll post photos of the final outcome once it is finished. For these photos, the pink photo is sanded but without Red Out applied, the yellow photo is sanded with Red Out applied.

I would definitely love to see more review and info on the red out! our flooring place has not yet used it bur it gives me hope hearing it did change the undertone to more of a yellow. thank you!

To everyone like myself who has had wishful thinking that red oak could be tweaked to look like white oak or more brown/grey, it’s next to impossible, it seems. Red oak is called red oak because red is in its dna. Period. Period. Period again. I had Bona-certified professionals apply Bona Red Out, then do two coats of Bona NordicSeal, then two coats of Bona TrafficHD Extra Matte. The result does not look like white oak, it looks like ”peach oak” or ”pinky oak” if that were a thing.

Other things I learned and wish someone would told me directly:

-Bona NaturalSeal might have been less pink and more white oak like than NordicSeal.

-Bona TrafficHD Extra Matte looks better in my opinion than Bona TrafficHD Satin. My house has two units and I did Satin in the rental unit and Extra Matte in my unit (same Red Out and NordicSeal applications). Extra Matte still has a little shine and looks legit/finished; Satin looks more like a ballet studio in my opinion (it’s nice, I just prefer the subtle sheen offered by Extra Matte).

-Blending very old wood and new wood of the same species (or at least in red oak) will not blend perfectly color-wise. I replaced with new red oak flooring, about half the old red oak flooring in my house because the old was damaged. I naively assumed they could match. Wrong…unless maybe if you go quite dark.

I note all of the above in hopes these bullet points will help someone else. I wouldn’t try to salvage red oak if the browner/greyer tone of white oak is what you love.

The attached photos show the finished color after Bona Red Out, two coats of Bona NordicSeal, and two coats of Bona TrafficHD Extra Matte on 100-year-old red oak, all applied by Bona-certified professionals. Go for this look if you like peachy floors. The photos themselves tone down the peach color, but in person, the peach/pink color remains. If you don’t want peachy floors, go dark or just invest in white oak. Or at the very least, reconsider NordicSeal and opt for NaturalSeal or ClassicSeaI because Nordic will give you peach (toned down pink is still pink/peach). I hope this blunt assessment helps people!

Appreciate this assessment - I do think your floor look beautiful though (although I know pictures don’t represent the true colors sometimes). Our flooring people are going to play around with the red out to see how close they can get to a sample I liked - will let the group know how it turns out and/or if I decide to just go darker.

Ok now I have a decision to make - here is a good example of the bona natural seal with red out. I might still see a small hint of pink… but not nearly as much. More of a yellow. It’s really beautiful.. just worried it’s too matchy matchy with my maple so would take opinions on this vs the medium brown.

@Michelle Brannen If the Houzz 35 Design Trends for 2023 is any indication (see photo with #1), matchy matchy might be just the thing! In my opinion, the lighter does look very suited to your cabinets. Best wishes.

Thanks Dominy!

For what it's worth we did our red oak floor with 2 coats of Bona Natural (did not use the red out) and we are happy with the result. There is a lot of pink yes but it doesnt both us. Also blended some 25 year old red oak with new oak floors, and while it's not a perfect match, I think no one would be able to tell except professional floor people. Once we put on rugs, furniture, etc, the different is even less noticeable.

I think if it wasn’t for our maple cabinets I’d be more ok with the pink - it’s just a different pretty look. But, red out definitely took out most of the pink so it’s a really good product in my opinion if you’re ok with your natural having yellow undertones.

Wondering if it would be easier to tone down the yellow after the red out than the pink without. We are having our floors done on January 30 with red out. Any other feedback would be appreciated.

I definitely think so. And it’s really not that yellow… I think it’s a really good option. Highly recommend having them sample in your wood first - again we did bona red out/natural seal/had traffic satin

I’d say this looks more yellow than it really is but it’s a comparison against our original orangey floors

Thanks so much :)

So I just installed two coats of Bona Nordic seal as well as a coat of satin polyurethane over 3 1/4 in select and better Red Oak for a customer. This is a gut renovation. Definite pink undertones. To upgrade to white oak was an extra three bucks a square foot, which would’ve cost $8500. I almost wish I did it or at least an alternate finish to get rid of the pink. I’ve used Rubio mono coat in the past. What a fantastic product. The buyer loves it so that’s the most important thing.

I did 3 coats of Nordic Seal and it turned out great on my red oak.  I've had so many compliments!  I'm not sure what pink tone everyone is talking about but I love this.

@oobiyah. Thanks to your very detailed and direct comments I went with red out on 1800's original red oak floors with bona naturals and matte finish!! I LOVE IT! in the picture the first 2 rooms are original and the room in the distance is new white oak with same sealer and finish. no pink undertones on the original red oak.

@Jay S glad the assessment helped you, your floors look great. I’m a realtor in DC/VA and your home looks like a DC row house, maybe we are neighbors!

Good eye!

Hey everyone, this thread has been very helpful and also a bit worrying. My first reno! lots of learning.

I took some red oak out from a house nearby (BC Canada) and installed it in my new place, didnt quite have enough and ended up matching it from the original manufacturer in Quebec. The new stuff is definitely pinker, although it doesn't bother me much.

I originally wanted to get that muted white look which i am still after but a-lot of talk on here about pinks which is worrying me. some of the photos look fine in my opinion. The only photo i find worrying is @John Murphy 's where a couple boards look straight up yellow, against some pink ones and that would do my head in. @John Murphy do you have any more photos?

Product arrived yesterday and I will begin process tomorrow morning.... or maybe reassess after more reading today :) Now debating if i should order natural seal instead and wait another two weeks. However i am a very impatient person.

-1 treatment of red out

-2 coats nordic seal

3 coats Traffic HD

I had my floor professionally levelled and prepped and its stunning at the moment and ive been tip toeing around the house in bootie covers all week waiting for this stuff to arrive. I love the look of it now and tempted to scrap the red out and just get going. The other thing i am worried about and curious if anyone can comment or advise on is the need to "de-nib" after the red out due to the opening of the grain structure resulting in grain rise. once i wait for the floor to dry and get back to within 1% moisture of baseline and then use a tampico buffing pad (can i use the red pad? or better softer white pad) will i risk putting in scratch marks with that or are those pads too soft to risk scratching? BONA recommends this or else ill have to sand in between seal coats which i want to avoid doing any more of. Thoughts?

All in all so far the total cost for me to do this and having tried to save money by getting some used wood was in vain. I could have had nice stuff installed for a very similar price. But it has been enjoyable and i've learned some valuable lessons. Just hope they turn out nice. Definitely nervous for this last step. Any tips or encouraging words welcome! :D

Some photos below of progress and will update through out the process for reference.

It looks more beautiful in person

Here is another one.  My husband said we did 2 coats and a seal not 3 coats.  The more coats you do the darker it becomes. It's gorgeous in person. Pictures don't do justice.

that does look great! fingers crossed i come out with a nice finished product!

@C s that looks very nice. after sanding down old floor, 2 coats of nordic seal and 1 coat of mega?

Also did you do a matte finish?

Here are my samples. The first picture is during the day and the second is with artificial light at night (3000K). The top sample is the red out after application and dried at night. There is no stain on it yet. The others are Bona Grey, white, bottom left is Birch and bottom right is Sand Dune. I’ll update these once I try some stains on the red out portion.

So i applied the Red Out, and had some interesting effects (see below photos) . I use products like these at work on ships to make the teak decking "pop" prior to guest arrival so a two part wash is not foreign to me and i am sure i didn't apply it incorrectly.

I have two lots of wood and its definitely reacted differently with the older red oak compared to the new red oak.

On the older red oak it turned the pink boards a nice white, and then the already whiteish boards went a very awful yellowy green colour and then 80% of the darker boards went very very dark.

On the newer red oak floors it worked a charm, eliminating alot of the red pigment and giving a nice effect.

I then spent the next day hand sanding individual boards i was unhappy with in the older red oak area, to get the colour back from before the application. this worked nicely and you can see below photo before and after with the darker boards brought back down. and the yellower/green ones as well.

there were also 4 planks in the reclaimed red oak that after the red out process cracks appeared and the grain split in several parts and lifted dramatically. most likely there before and then once they were wet it raised them enough to be seen. They had to be cut out with a razor blade and filled again. luckily they were in areas where i wont notice them .

All in all the red out worked very good but on the older wood it had some very strange effects which added a bit more work.

Nordic Seal;

Excellent product but a but tricky to use, due to the pigment you have to really be on your game with moving that wet edge and not letting it stand too long or you get funny patches that look extra cloudy or lines in where the puddle sat. First coat was a horrorshow as i had never used this kind of product before. Had a day of a few small repairs and touch ups. let that sit over night, abraded and then applied the second coat which went much smoother with the practice the day before. the overall look was great. If i did it again i might have stopped with one coat as the red out had done a good job and the boards looked more clear. The second coat almost covered them up too much in my opinion and a little part of me really liked just the one coat.

I gently abraded that second coat again (240)

Traffic HD [satin];

Another great product and was very easy to use. Great self levelling characteristics, went down easy and looks great two coats of that no problems. Debating a third now. Also debating wether i should have gone with the Matt. Have had loads of compliments so far and everyone seems to think they look really nice. Im still on the fence as i think the matt would look really good.

Does anyone know if i abraded and put down a coat of the matt would it look matt or would it be impeded by the two satin coats underneath? Will they react ok?

Let me know your thoughts.

Red Out Application:

PartA down, following over with PartB

Part B drying part

Red Out before and Afters;

Hand Sanding darker or greener boards back.

First coat of Nordic Seal:

Second Coat of Nordic Seal;

Finish Traffic HD Satin (2 coats):

We just completed our floors (through a flooring company) and we are so happy with them. Without the red out on the same floor it was very pink. This was one coat red out, bona natural, and hd traffic satin. This picture makes it look a touch more yellow than it really is- it’s a very beautiful light natural color with no pink!

Thank you for all of this!! Great feedback!!

@C s your floors look great! We did a sample of the bona nordic and it doesn't look pink at all on my floors either. Waiting for them to apply a topcoat on the sample so I can really see.

So you did two coats Bona Nordic and 1 coat of which top coat? Thank you!

@Michelle Brannen - your floor looks good to me! Is this an existing/refinished floor, or new wood? Some other people seem to see a difference with Red Out on old/new wood, and we would potentially have 17 y/o refinished laced in with new wood to expand the wood floor to additional rooms. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you we love them! We had about 20 year old redwood laced with new redwood- we did make sure the variety of redwood was the same as I think that can make a difference according to our flooring place. I would say there was one spot on the new wood that for some reason is a bit more pink but not on the other new wood. Honestly there is so much variation in the wood though it does not bother me at all.

@Michelle Brannen could you clarify? is your floor red oak or redwood?

Sorry red oak!

Does anyone have pictures of 3 coats of Bona Nordic on red oak? We just did two coats and they are saying to wait 24 hours but we are seeing pink. It looks great but def pink undertones

I don’t have a photo Bc I used natural. It had been two years now and what I want to mention is to make sure- regardless of whatever you choose-to have a couple of HD High traffic coats or very good sealer. I already have to have my floors refinished. They scratched very easily and every mark is noticeable.

Thanks! Yes we plan on using two coats of the HD Traffic sealer. Here are the floors so far.

It’s hard to tell in the picture, they are lighter but also pinker in person

Michelle BrannenYour floors look great.

Do you know how many coats of natural seal and HD Traffic you used?

Also, did you go for a matte or satin finish?

We applied the natural seal on our floors but it looks pinkish. So looking to have them re-do it and apply the redout first. Happy to hear that it did not turn out super yellow.

Thank you! two coats natural one coat satin finish. We definitely did not like the samples they did on our floor without the red out - way too pink. and no not too yellow, some yellow but mostly just light and pretty! id recommend testing on your own floor.

I will try the Red Out the next round as well. Lots of good info. Thank you

Do you know if you can use the red out after two coats of Nordic seal? I’m not sure if that’s possible but if it is I’m not sure if we should do that or another round of Nordic seal

No, Red Out has to be applied after sanding. The sequence is sand, red out, nordic seal, nordic seal, hd traffic, hd traffic.

Nordic seal by itself won’t remove the pink. Even with red out, if you have red oak, your floors will be more peach. Better than pink, and a nice color, but not just like white oak.

Yeah we spoke to the contractor today who said it doesn’t work well on red oak.

Does three coats of Nordic seal make the wood less grainy?

Heath, you likely already tackled this, but a light sand before applying finish (matte or satin) will make it smoother.

We did a test sample of two coats bona nordicseal and are seeing lots of orangey pink. left is bare wood and right is test sample. Would red out fix the super orange or any suggestions?